IHR induction #37: "House of Usher" (1960, Roger Corman)

Many casual film fans know the name Roger Corman, but not many fully apreciate all the things that the man was able to accomplish. On budgets that won't buy most directors a single day's worth of shooting time, Corman has crafted a body of work over the years that, while the movies themselves would never be confused with Oscar winners, boast more than a few truly memorable cheesefests and the occasional truly good film. This one included.

At the time "House of Usher" was released, Corman had already been an extremely prolific film-maker for many years, releasing as many as seven films per year. Unbelievably, a director whose filmography includes titles such as "Attack of the Crab Monsters," "The Undead" (which was featured on "Mystery Science Theater 3000") and "The Wasp Woman" had failed to achieve much notoriety as a skilled auteur. Then came "House of Usher." In the early portion of the 1960s, the guy who once said that he could make a movie about the Roman empire with a few loincloths and a sagebrush began a long series of can't-miss prospects. Namely, Edgar Allan Poe adaptations starring Vincent Price, one of the most memorable and talented actors in all of cinema. The formula was both successful and good - all in all, eight Corman-Poe movies would be released, but none would approach the greatness of a slightly off-kilter, slightly manic retelling of the Master of the Macabre's greatest short story.

From the onset of the movie, it is very obvious that this isn't an ordinary, somber Poe adaptation. Atmospheric fog and green hues envelop the screen as Philip Winthrop (played with plenty of babyface gusto by Mark Damon) approaches the House of Usher. Any beginning scholar of American literature knows the story - visitor becomes the interloper in the lives of the cursed Usher family, witnesses several strange happenings and a family death, and ultimately a horrific "resurrection" that strangely spells the end of all the creepy debauchery.

Corman's "House of Usher," with a screenplay by Richard Matheson (who would later go on to create the television series "Kolchak: The Night Stalker"), has several aces in its deck. Blessed with a slightly-above-average-by-Corman-standards budget, the director does an amazing job filling up the dreary sets with plenty of genuine creep factor, granting the House that the entire film takes place in with an extremely personable atmosphere. You know what? Scratch all that. This movie has Vincent Price in his prime. Pretty much any movie with the Price Man is worth viewing on that merit alone, and "House of Usher" is no exception.

In the original short story "Fall of the House of Usher," the character of Roderick is this hypochondriac, borderline paranoid schizophrenic character who enacts the horrific climactic event as a result of some sort of bizarre predestination belief. The Richard Matheson script calls for a much more emotional approach; Winthrop has come to the house in order to take Roderick's sister Madeline (Myrna Fahey) away, which does not go over too well with her overprotective brother. Roderick disapproves of the relationship, which started prior to the events of the film and quickly escalated to the lust and engagement phases.

Of course, as the movie unspools, the story enters more traditional Poe territory, as Roderick is obsessed with the notion that his family is cursed, and cannot believe that his sibling has broken the vow they took to let the family bloodline die with them. Suddenly and abruptly (redundancy alert), Madeline is dead, leaveing Philip heartbroken and Roderick wanting only to bury away the past, considering himself halfway to his goal of ridding the world of the Usher name. Also considering that the film goes into the long history of the Usher family - how countless ancestors have become mad, insane aristocratic criminals - the viewer is left to wonder whether or not the tragic death of Madeline is a bad thing.

Then the film's third act begins. During the course of the nonstop barrage of English classes that make up Academia, the finale of "Fall of the House of Usher" is something that sticks with everyone who reads it. Almost 200 years after its initial writing, Poe's shocking final twist is powerful, horrifying, and even revolting when one considers everything that one of the particular characters has gone through. In a micro-budgeted feature film, the ending isn't QUITE as effective, but still resonates as extremely powerful stuff, especially considering the more emotional approach that the film takes.

Longtime readers of this Horror Nerd know that I'm ordinarily not a stickler for what I oh-so-ignorantly define as "older" horror movies; "House of Usher" is a big exception, a movie that I saw some long ago Sunday night when tornado-y weather was dotting the Minnesota landscape (bad prose alert much?). Combined with the external elements, the internal elements of this film - Corman's direction, the atmosphere, and most wonderful of all, Vincent Price and his crazy, over-the-top, infinitely memorable mannerisms - converged to create one of the best classical horror films I've seen. And for all the doubters, this flick is in that oh-so-uppity (and officially accredited) United States National Film Registry, so suck on it.